Why does poverty limit imagination?

Recently, another Indian movie has poked our pain points -

The Starting Line

Hindi Medium

You must not lose at the starting line superior!

This classic saying of wisdom runs through our lives, and it usually appears in this context...

The kids next door are studying in their spare time, but you know how to play every day Son, we all lost at the starting line!

What the child does determines the outcome of the "Starting Line".

The child next door attended a cram school at a sky-high price. Even if we don’t have that much money, we can’t let our child lose at the starting line!

The soft and hard skills of parents determine the outcome of the "Starting Line".

The Indian family of three also encountered such a problem...

The husband Raj runs a clothing store outside, while his wife Mithu is responsible for family life, and their daughter Pia is cute and well-behaved.

The originally wealthy family was stuck in education:

In a blink of an eye, the daughter reached the age of entering school

Adhering to the principle of not letting the children lose at the starting line, The couple decided to provide their daughter with the best educational resources.

They visited prestigious private schools all over the city, bought expensive school district housing, queued up overnight to grab registration numbers, and attended various cram schools...

Inspector, a documentary I recommended before [Post-2000] The director followed the children and their parents for ten years.

As a result, every family in India has gone through the same process of moving and choosing a school, registration and extracurricular training...

It seems that our next door neighbor has told us what we were thinking!

Why are parents working so hard today?

Tiger mother Mitu explained the reason:

Educational background determines the direction of development, and even speaking English or Indian is a symbol of class division.

Therefore, they must always create conditions for their children...

Invite surrounding elite families to gatherings so that their daughter can quickly integrate into the circle of the second-generation elite and cultivate her own temperament.

Even in order to pass the school’s parent review, the couple had to dress up like upper class people, wearing jewels and famous brands.

But as businessmen in the market, they dressed up as standard nouveau riche and caused a lot of jokes.

He bought a house in a school district, enrolled in training courses, and even went to great lengths to integrate into the elite class in order to create a new family background.

It is better to pursue class promotion than to educate my daughter!

India’s traditional hierarchy has been replaced by the class divisions of modern society, and a new pattern of poor people, wealthy businessmen, elites, and powerful people has formed.

And the barriers between classes are becoming more and more difficult to break down...

In the end, all the hard work of the couple failed...

Although doing business allowed them to compete The average family is wealthy, but they are far from having the wealth and strong authority to influence everything.

Schools don’t want to accept children from nouveau riche!

Everyone knows that knowledge changes destiny...

Education is the way to break down class barriers, but when educational resources are also controlled by a small elite, does class mobility still exist?

There is a more ironic presentation of this [Starting Line]...

The famous schools in the film reserve places for poor families, so that children from poor families can also enjoy the resources of famous schools, which reflects the education fair.

So the Raj family, who failed to show off their wealth, began to pretend to be poor!

Raj bribed people to forge proof of poverty, and then they had to move to the slums. The wife had to fight for water with others every day, and the husband had to squeeze into the legendary cheating bus...

This is an Indian deformation plot!

In fact, even if places are reserved for poor children, the high tuition fees will deter the poor, while the rich can operate from it.

Such fairness is just a trick used by those in power to fool the poor.

In the words of the principal:

What are the benefits of letting the poor come to study?

The headmistress also comes from a poor family, but she prevents children from poor families from enrolling in school because she is now an elite and will inevitably speak out for her position and interests.

So on the surface this movie discusses education issues, but in fact it presents the gap between rich and poor and class differentiation in society.

The starting line of education has long become a class divide...

Take our college entrance examination as an example.

Although the college entrance examination is the fairest selection method at this stage, we have to admit that losing at the starting line is the norm.

Xiong Xuanang, Beijing’s liberal arts champion, said in an interview that the reason why he achieved high scores was related to his good family environment. The unique educational resources of Beijing’s big cities provided him with conditions that candidates in rural areas did not have. and shortcuts.

All roads lead to Rome, but some people are born in Rome!

Inspector, I remembered the hot topic of "poverty limits imagination" a few days ago. I can't understand that the consumption behavior of the rich has become a standard for measuring the poor...

But is it really because we are poor that we lack the imagination to be rich?

What really limits our imagination is not poverty but class. Different levels of vision determine different levels of consumption behavior and so-called imagination.

Although the movie "Starting Line" expresses this reality, it ends optimistically with the protagonist's own reconciliation...

However, in reality, unfair education solidifies classes and makes class mobility more difficult. , just like Raj’s poor friend said feebly:

Because no one wants to struggle at the bottom, but the bottom will always exist...

I’m afraid this is the most disturbing thing Tell the truth! (film detective)